Paintball Comes to Croatia

Couple of years ago me and a friend tried to introduce paintball to
Croatia,
but it didn't work out 'cause, we were too inexperienced to organize such
a feat and, besides, the war still raged on, so it seemed inapropriate to
invite people to "play war" at the same time.

So, paintball didn't appear in Croatia until this year, and I was very
eager
to finally experience it for real (I haven't played before, only saw
pictures). The tournament was held near Pula, a pretty sea-coast town with
a
Roman amphitheater, but also with a large military base in the vicinity.
The
result was that most of the teams were groups of professional soldiers,
military policemen, and such. Then there were two veteran Slovenian teams
(Croatian-Slovenian border is very near Pula), and us - couple of students
from Zagreb, the capital. Actually, even the friends I was with have
strong
military/martial arts/sharpshooting interests, so I was alone in the
multitude of people merrily discussing AK-47 recoil. Everybody was in
camo,
and some even wore official insignia of their military units. No teenagers
or clumsy students... no, make it ONE clumsy student - me!

The field was 100 * 100 square meters, a dense wood. The game was CENTER
FLAG, and two teams of three fought for the maximum of 5 minutes.

Some problems appeared when it came to getting ammo - we were commenting
how the wood was very dense, lot of bush, so that lots of ammo has to be
spent 'cause most of the balls would splat into leaves and bush before
reaching the target. The Slovenian team came and took 6.000 balls, while
other teams bought 1.000 at most! It seemed very unfair, especially taking
into account that they had their own pro equipment and everybody else used
the eq provided by organizer. Yes, I know, that's how it's done, but it
was
obvious that we stood no chance and that left everybody grumbling.

Actually, the Slovene teams looked a lot like Imperial stormtroopers, with
helmets, huge tanks of CO2 carried on the back and other special outfit,
so
we hummed the Star Wars theme song when they would pass by...
My first impression of paintball was - lots of shouting and noone knows
what's going on! As the observer, I had a lot of fun, although there was
not much to see 'cause of the foliage. We stood on a ridge elevated a
meter
above the field, laughing and commenting. When a player would run by, the
shots from the middle of the field, aiming at the runner, would spray all
over the observing post, (sometimes hitting the cars parked behind) making
us duck or run away.

Soon it was my turn. I grabbed a gun and shot a few rounds. I was
impressed
by distance and accuracy of the shots. I thought that these little rubber
balls propelled by air can't be aimed effectively. Unfortunately, a second
before going to our base, a friend gave me a better gun, which I didn't
bother to check.

I was instructed to go to the left, which I did in a frenetic run. Very
soon I came upon a guy (say, 20 meters away) standing on open ground. I
shot immediately but the trigger didn't pull - the safety catch was on!
Bewildered, I turned and ran back, finding a cover and finding where the
!"#
was the safety catch. When I regained the previous position, I saw my
opponent standing behind a tree, but aiming and taking cover at another
direction - he didn't see me. There was also a referee directly in the
line
between the two of us. Without hesitation, I shot at my opponent, the
balls
flying inches above the referee, splatting all around him and making him
leap for cover. It was a right decision - the ref didn't seem to mind and
I hit the opponent (and for some reason the refs wore camo like the
players,
so it's their fault, isn't it). As it turned out, when I ran away, the
opponents used the situation to eliminate our middle guy (since I didn't
cover him from the left), but he also managed to get one in the process. I
got the other one, and our right guy took the third. It was a splendid
victory!

Unfortunately, the rest of the games didn't go that well. My phrase of the
day seemed to be "Where did THAT come from!?". Instead of moving a lot, I
prefered to stay in one place and I would soon get flanked. However
ineffective my running was, it still got me some muscle pain in the
following days!

I learned a lot:

always check your gun.

movement and coordination is everything (at least under these
circumstances).

when you shout, shout real loud, 'cause it's very difficult to hear
what's
being shouted on the other side of the field, with a wool cap and a mask
on, and the leaves whistling all around.

We ended 5th out of 7, or 3rd out of 5 if you don't count the Slovenian
teams who didn't loose a single game except against each other. A fine
result.

Since lot of the games ended quick, with players managing to fire only a
few
rounds before being eliminated, the end of the tournament found many of us
with lots of unused balls, so the organizer allowed us to play some extra.
I
liked those unofficial games the most! We divided in two random groups of
five and went in without much thinking. There was chivalry and fair play,
unlike during the tournament. Nobody swore teammates or opponents or was
nervous. The downside was that we didn't know and didn't recognize each
other in the woods.

Still, I had a good time and I look forward to springtime and tournaments
in
Zagreb (in the less military atmosphere)...
.... and don't shoot the redheaded guy in black overalls!